Yay for a new thread! Hopefully there will be much more good news in here than in the last one!

2 more goals for Tomáš Jurčo last night, his current point streak now stands at 12 points in 7 games, he was held pointless only in two out of the 22 games he played so far this season and in those games he has 32 points for 16G and 16A.

Anton Tomko will be replaced by Ernest Bokroš as the head coach for the national U20 team. Changing the coach weeks before the big tourney really? Plus, I kinda don´t think that the coach is the big problem here anyway. And what about the U18 team?

Also if they fired Tomko for bad results/play how come the other coaches are still in their place considering their results?

hokejportal.sk gave us the fans the opportunity to ask Otto Sýkora- the general secretary of the Slovak icw-hockey federation and the GM of the NT (so basically pretty much the strongest man in Slovak hockey) questions and today he answered them. First of all, props to him for taking the time and answering all the questions and for his willingness to actually take part in something like this. There has been a lot of stuff said on loads of things whether it was the NT or Extraliga/1.liga, but for this thread I translated the most important points he made on youth/junior hockey:

- when he was approached by SZĽH he firmly believed that most people realize how grave the situation that we find ourselves in is, however he was disappointed to find out that most people are content with the way things work here, he is very disappointed by the work with youth, which is lagging behind the expectations in international comparisons
- his prior ambitions include drawing more kids to the rinks and improving the quality of work with youth
- to create such a league from 1.liga that it will become a league for players who finish playing junior leagues
- stabilizing the U18 and U20 teams in the elite division
- the U20 tournament was a huge disappointment- not only because of results, but also bad play, thus the coach change, Sýkora also talked with the U20 team players personally and "told them a few words about what he expects from them")
- (when asked whether Slovakia couldn´t take inspiration from countries like Sweden who underwent a hockey reform and on possible cooperation with the Nordic countries): the changes in those countries were made because all people from all kinds of sectors understood that a change is needed and worked hard to do it. Here in Slovakia we still pretend that everything is okay, he says they have huge trouble to convince people that work in youth hockey how bad the situation is (Here he says that they should ask themselves when was the last time that a big talent for the NT or NHL was brought up in Slovakia and how many (or little) talents there have been in the last 8-9 years), the changes done by Lener in Czech rep. are so economically demanding that acc. to Sýkora there would be maybe 1 club in Slovakia, who could afford it, when it comes to cooperation with Sweden and Finland, he says that he has good contacts there and is counting on cooperation with them when it comes to education of coaches
- he says that most Slovak coaches can´t speak a foreign language and therefore aren´t able to follow the international trends
- the future of the U20 Púchov project will be decided after the WJC
- currently they´re working on analysing all the youth compeitions in Slovakia, he says he´s glad that Švehla is heading the youth commission and that Švehla sacrifices a lot of his free time for this analysis and talks with experts. He says that some competitions need to be changed seriously. Specifics should be known in January.
- they plan to bring more youth hockey on TV
- he´s disappointed by the performances of the likes of Tatar or Pánik so far, they were expecting more from them

Since Ernest Bokroš took over the U20 team there were a number of changes in the line-up of the HK Orange team (which I guess also relates to the fact that the WJC is approaching), Richard Mráz came to the team from Tatranskí Vlci of the MHL, Matúš Chovan from HC Košice, Filip Nemček from Banská Bystrica, Tomáš Mikúš from Skalica and most recently Marko Daňo from Dukla Trenčín. The preliminary roster for the WJC will be released at the start of next week, although a number of names of the NA players were released already:

Since Ernest Bokroš took over the U20 team there were a number of changes in the line-up of the HK Orange team (which I guess also relates to the fact that the WJC is approaching), Richard Mráz came to the team from Tatranskí Vlci of the MHL, Matúš Chovan from HC Košice, Filip Nemček from Banská Bystrica, Tomáš Mikúš from Skalica and most recently Marko Daňo from Dukla Trenčín. The preliminary roster for the WJC will be released at the start of next week, although a number of names of the NA players were released already:

Where were these names released? And where the hell is Jurčo and Jánošík?

They weren´t released really, they were mostly announced by their CHL teams....the players already got the invitations, but for some reason SZĽH decided that they wouldn´t release the roster until next week, probably want to gain new fans for their facebook page as that is where it will be announced....

They weren´t released really, they were mostly announced by their CHL teams....the players already got the invitations, but for some reason SZĽH decided that they wouldn´t release the roster until next week, probably want to gain new fans for their facebook page as that is where it will be announced....

Preliminary roster will be released after last SVK 20 game in "1.liga" against Piestany on Sunday. Janosik didn't play last night, he has minor injury (I hope).

http://denniksport.sk/article/195877...-to-stale-deti
The training camp for the U20 NT starts on December 7th at the trainign rink of Nepela rink in Bratislava. 5 players will be sent home from the Orange team after tomorrow´s game against Piešťany, another ones the next Saturday before the team will fly to Canada on Dec 15th. Right now they´re planning to take 2 D pairings and 4-6 forwards from NA, because as Bokroš puts it the NA players have their qualities and it would be a sin not to use them. There will be two more players invited from Europe for the training camp- another two 1993s btw- F Michal Krištof, playing the Finnish U20 league for Sport (25pts in 25 games) and a D from Třínec in CZE, I think it´s Peter Bezuška, another 1993 (The article actually has Bokroš saying that it´s Nechala, but that´s gotta be a mistake since Nechala has been playing in Púchov. I´d expect them to invite Šimboch as well? Also no big talks about goals this year lke playing quarterfinals, primary goal being avoiding relagation.

Still, even though alko says that these names mentioned are just preliminary it still seems that there will be a lot of love for underagers even on the final roster, I mean looking at the guys that might get any consideration for the team there are

http://denniksport.sk/article/195877...-to-stale-deti
The training camp for the U20 NT starts on December 7th at the trainign rink of Nepela rink in Bratislava. 5 players will be sent home from the Orange team after tomorrow´s game against Piešťany, another ones the next Saturday before the team will fly to Canada on Dec 15th. Right now they´re planning to take 2 D pairings and 4-6 forwards from NA, because as Bokroš puts it the NA players have their qualities and it would be a sin not to use them. There will be two more players invited from Europe for the training camp- another two 1993s btw- F Michal Krištof, playing the Finnish U20 league for Sport (25pts in 25 games) and a D from Třínec in CZE, I think it´s Peter Bezuška, another 1993 (The article actually has Bokroš saying that it´s Nechala, but that´s gotta be a mistake since Nechala has been playing in Púchov. I´d expect them to invite Šimboch as well? Also no big talks about goals this year lke playing quarterfinals, primary goal being avoiding relagation.

Still, even though alko says that these names mentioned are just preliminary it still seems that there will be a lot of love for underagers even on the final roster, I mean looking at the guys that might get any consideration for the team there are

Ok, 18 1992s seems like a lot, but I´d say a number of the Euro 1992s won´t make it to the final roster.

Simboch will be sure starting goalie, Riecicky back-up. Rybar played against Liptovsky Mikulas, his chances to make roster are minimal.
I hope Bokros will decide to take all 5 overseas D-men, Trska is locked. Two free spots - Kurali, Macejko or Bezuska.
I am pleased Kristof is invited to the camp. He is fast skater, actually the best scorer of his club Vaasan Sport in U20 SM-liiga with 25 (13+12) points in 25 games. 4 or 6 NA forwards - Jurco, Tvrdon and Cingel are locked, Vasko and Dolnik got invitations, there are rumours about NAHL player Toman. David Bondra is the best scorer of BCHL team Chilliwack Chiefs (22g/28p). Matousek, Kalinac, Chovan, Zigo and Bene have the best chances to make final roster from Puchov. I really want to see first line Jurco, Dano, Tvrdon.

Simboch will be sure starting goalie, Riecicky back-up. Rybar played against Liptovsky Mikulas, his chances to make roster are minimal.
I hope Bokros will decide to take all 5 overseas D-men, Trska is locked. Two free spots - Kurali, Macejko or Bezuska.
I am pleased Kristof is invited to the camp. He is fast skater, actually the best scorer of his club Vaasan Sport in U20 SM-liiga with 25 (13+12) points in 25 games. 4 or 6 NA forwards - Jurco, Tvrdon and Cingel are locked, Vasko and Dolnik got invitations, there are rumours about NAHL player Toman. David Bondra is the best scorer of BCHL team Chilliwack Chiefs (22g/28p). Matousek, Kalinac, Chovan, Zigo and Bene have the best chances to make final roster from Puchov. I really want to see first line Jurco, Dano, Tvrdon.

I think that the chances that Rybár will travel to Canada are pretty big, they always take 3 goalies and the 3rd one is usually an underager, it doesn´t matte though since he won´t actually play or even sit on the bench.

I think Richard Márz has equal chances as the guys you mentioned to make it to the final roster.

As for the Ds, I guess this is the year when we break Mikeš´s tradition of taking an underage D to the big show.

Would definitely be fun seeing that line, but I have a feeling that Jurčo and Tvrdoň might actually be getting an NA center and that Daňo would get his linemates from the U20 tourney in Púchov (even though they hvan´t played together in Púchov).

I think that the chances that Rybár will travel to Canada are pretty big, they always take 3 goalies and the 3rd one is usually an underager, it doesn´t matte though since he won´t actually play or even sit on the bench.

I think Richard Márz has equal chances as the guys you mentioned to make it to the final roster.

As for the Ds, I guess this is the year when we break Mikeš´s tradition of taking an underage D to the big show.

Would definitely be fun seeing that line, but I have a feeling that Jurčo and Tvrdoň might actually be getting an NA center and that Daňo would get his linemates from the U20 tourney in Púchov (even though they hvan´t played together in Púchov).

Would be surprised if Richard Mraz doesn´t make the team. Could surprise some people in the future.

Would be surprised if Richard Mraz doesn´t make the team. Could surprise some people in the future.

Well, you never know with the Slovak nominations....but the fact that they got him to play in Púchov after the coach change is a positive sign since Tomko omitted him from the 4 Nations tourney roster. I´m guessing he will be back to the MHL after the WJC?

Just digging thought SZĽH´s facebook profile in one answer to a fan asking something they mention that they´re planning a massive recuitment program with the support of Slovak NHLers soon (they´re also planing a program to provide equipment, but that´s nothing new since there´s been a number of them in recent years).

yes, he will. At least coach Totter said it. MHL has a break since 12 december until 8.january. If Mraz play at WJC, there will be problem with joining Vlci in january. VLci will play russian trip whole month (St.Pete, Moscow, Moscow regiona and Khabarovsk)

Probably I am not only surprised with Sabol instead Rybár, it is pleasantly surprise (unfortunately former U18 coach Fruhauf made opposite decision in April...).
D Richard Buri has no chance to make a team.
Daňo, Zigo, Kalináč, Krištof are four center forwards, Kalinac was injured in the last game.

Probably I am not only surprised with Sabol instead Rybár, it is pleasantly surprise (unfortunately former U18 coach Fruhauf made opposite decision in April...).
D Richard Buri has no chance to make a team.
Daňo, Zigo, Kalináč, Krištof are four center forwards, Kalinac was injured in the last game.

Fruhauf has made many strange and bad decisions throughout the season...
Good decision to prefer Sabol over Rybar IMO.

Well, Fruhauf is a different story, whatever one might think about Bokroš´s coaching abilities, I don´t think he´s possible of such brain farts as Fruhauf was.

As for Rybár, it seems that he only played for the U20 team since he was already in Púchov (played a few games for their 1.liga team) after Nitra signed Šimboch, and since they were missing a goalie they decided it would be easier to have him play rather than call someone new. It´s not a huge issue since I doubt the 3rd goalie will even be dressed for any of the games, but it´s nice to know that they decided to make the good decision anyway.

Matej Paulovič has been on fire in Sweden lately, he´s currently on a 5 game scoring streak and has 16 points (5G+11A).